Croatia recorded a current account surplus of €4.57 billion in the third quarter of 2019, which is €771 million or 20.3% more than at the same time in 2019, according to figures released by the Croatian National Bank (HNB) on Tuesday.

The capital account ran a surplus of €222 million, which together with the current account surplus makes a total surplus of €4.79 billion, an increase of €841 million over the same period in 2018.

The marked improvement in the balance of payments was due to positive trends in the sub-accounts, notably in international trade in services.

The surplus in the current and capital accounts at the end of the third quarter of 2019 was 4.3% of GDP, one percentage point more than in the whole of 2018, the central bank said.

Positive trends were also observed in the goods account, where the deficit was reduced by about €20 million to €2.36 billion.